Category Archives: Arts & Entertainment

Jews in the World of Art & Entertainment

Jew of the Week: Max Azria

BCBG Max Azria

Max Azria (Credit: David Shankbone)

Max Azria (b. 1949) was born in Tunisia to a traditional Jewish family, the youngest of six children. He grew up in France, where he was first drawn to the fashion industry. He spent eleven years working in French fashion before moving to Los Angeles and opening his first boutique, called Jess. After eight very successful years, Azria launched BCBG Max Azria in 1989. (The name comes from the French slang bon chic bon genre, “good style, good attitude”.) Known for its affordable designer fashion, the brand became extremely popular. It made headlines at New York Fashion Week in 1996, and put Azria on the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1998. That same year, he bought a French company, Hervé Léger, making history by being the first American designer to buy out a French one. Azira launched an exclusive celebrity line called Max Azria Atelier in 2004, and a youth store called BCBGeneration in 2008. Celebrities are particularly fond of his designs, and among his biggest fans are Angelina Jolie, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Halle Berry, and Beyoncé. Azria has also designed clothing for TV shows, including Friends and Seinfeld. In all, he owns twenty different brands and has nearly 600 stores around the world. Unfortunately, many of these locations will soon be closing, as BCBG filed for bankruptcy yesterday. Nonetheless, Azria has been hailed as “one of the most important and influential designers in the world”. Aside from fashion, he is the spokesperson for ‘Concept: Cure’, a charity that supports breast cancer research. His brother Serge, daughter Joyce, and wife Lubov are all successful fashion designers as well. The latter recently spoke of the large Shabbat meals that the couple hosts at their home: “Sometimes there’s only five people, sometimes a hundred.”

Words of the Week

My relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.
– Albert Einstein

Jew of the Week: Rabbi Marvin Hier

The Rabbi at Trump’s Inauguration

Rabbi Hier at Trump’s Inauguration

Moshe Chaim Hier (b. 1939) was born in New York to Polish-Jewish immigrants. At the age of 23, he was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi and moved to Vancouver where he soon took charge of its Congregation Schara Tzedeck. In 1977, Hier moved to Los Angeles and established the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a non-profit dedicated to “confronting antisemitism, hate and terrorism, promoting human rights and dignity, standing with Israel, defending the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations.” The Simon Wiesenthal Center is now one of the most well-known Jewish organizations in the world, with offices in Toronto, Jerusalem, Paris, Buenos Aires, and across the US. Its Museum of Tolerance welcomes 350,000 visitors a year, and its library holds over 50,000 important volumes. Hier also established the Moriah Films company, which has produced over a dozen films focusing on Jewish history and the Holocaust. Two of these won Academy Awards for Best Documentary. This makes Hier the only rabbi to ever win an Oscar. He is also the only rabbi to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Meanwhile, Hier established Los Angeles’ Yeshiva University High Schools and was its dean for many years. He is currently working on a $200 million project to build a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, to open next year, and producing his 16th film, about the life of Shimon Peres. Most recently, Rabbi Hier gave a blessing at President Donald Trump’s inauguration. This made him only the second Jewish religious leader in history to speak at a presidential inauguration, and the first Orthodox rabbi to ever do so. He has been ranked as the most influential rabbi in America, and was once described as being “one phone call away from almost every world leader, journalist, and Hollywood studio head.”

Words of the Week

The bond that has united the Jews for thousands of years and that unites them today is, above all, the democratic ideal of social justice coupled with the ideal of mutual aid and tolerance among all men.
– Albert Einstein

Jew of the Week: Joe Mimran

The Brand Master

Joe Mimran (Credit: The Globe and Mail)

Joseph Mimran (b. 1952) was born in Casablanca, Morocco to an observant Jewish family, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. As a young man, he worked a number of odd jobs before opening his own art gallery while a student at York University. He finished his studies at the University of Windsor and became an accountant. After a couple of years, Mimran’s fashion designer mother inspired him to enter her field. He joined his mother and brother to set up a family fashion business called Ms. Originals. In 1979, the brothers hired a young Chinese-Canadian, Alfred Sung, to design their clothes, and the line was an instant hit. (Alfred Sung would later be hailed as “The New King of Fashion”). In the mid-80s, Mimran was once shopping for a simple white shirt but could not find one. He resolved to make his own, and started a new brand, Club Monaco, focused on simple, minimalist designs. By 1999, Club Monaco had 125 stores around the world, including one on Fifth Avenue in New York, and was bought out by Ralph Lauren. In 2004, Mimran started working on a new line to be sold exclusively at Loblaw’s supermarkets, giving rise to the Joe Fresh brand. The brand became so popular that in 2010, independent Joe Fresh stores began popping up. Mimran also founded the “Pink Tartan” label with his wife, and designed lines for President’s Choice and Holt Renfrew. He is currently the chair of the Fashion Design Council of Canada. Aside from fashion, Mimran is a noted philanthropist, supporting the Reena Foundation (which assists people with autism and disabilities), and Toronto’s East General Hospital, among others. Recently, Mimran joined the panel of Canada’s version of Dragon’s Den, the popular TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to venture capitalists. Mimran is recognized as a pioneer in modern fashion, and has been called a “human calculator”, and a “brand master”.

Words of the Week

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
– Sigmund Freud